643 Mortal Dust ( ll )
Big mouth watched a young man with a cold and emotionless face casually chop the head of two noblewomen. The latter did not bat an eye, there was no change in his expression, and he did not even care to hide his face.
‘This kid changed so much in just two years.’ Big Mouth was worried since this was the first time he had to deal with this situation. Most people would become numb to the constant killing and take things like drinking and visiting brothels to deal with the guilt.
However, the new hire, Yan Wei, became cold and emotionless, worrying him that something terrible would happen to the young lad.
p-a- n-d-a-n-0-v-e-l、(c)om “Yan Wei, come here.” The lad calmly walked before his employer, staring directly into Big Mouth’s eyes.
“I’m going to Red Tree City. Come with me.” Big Mouth did not give him the time to reject it and stated it was an order. The next day, the big belly man took the young lad to Red Tree City, a place known for its vibrant lifestyle and the red light district. He hoped Yan Wei could get out of whatever headspace the latter was on and meet some new people.
Regrettably, Yan Wei remained quiet during the entire journey. The only time he reacted was after arriving. Numerous people surrounded two people: a fat youngster dressed in embroidery clothes and another malnourished youngster in coarse garments.
The fat noble constantly kicked the other on the floor, swearing at the latter for dirtying his clothes. Everybody watched with empathy in their eyes, but no one dared do anything. They can only pray that the noble has enough and leave the youngster alone.
“Don’t look,” said Big Mouth as he dragged Yan Wei from the large crowd.
“Who is that?” asked Yan Wei.
“The Lai Family’s Third Young Master.”
“The Lai Family is the richest family in the surrounding prefecture. Don’t mess with them.”
Yan Wei did not say anything. He followed Big Mouth around the city with the same blank look. They stayed at an inn for the night, and Big Mouth prepared to continue the tour tomorrow; he did not want to give up so easily.
However, the following day, he walked inside Yan Wei’s room, trying to control his trembling body.
‘T-Third Young Master is dead.”
“Who’s Third Young Master?” asked Yan Wei.
“Lai Family. His head was chopped off in a back alley.”
“Oh.”
Big Mouth clenched his hands as he stared directly at the youngster: “Did you have something with his death?”
“No.” He could not tell whether this was the truth or not. In the end, he took a deep breath to calm down: “The entire city is on lockdown by the Lai Clan. You better hope you had nothing to do with this murder.”
For the next week, no one could enter and leave Red Tree City. The Lai Clan searched every nook and cranny to find the killer. At first, nothing proceeded smoothly until the last day when they found a man with the blad that killed their Third Young Master.
The person tried to deny it, but the evidence was in his possession. However, the clan still wanted to interrogate him to find the motive behind his actions. Unfortunately, the man died due to poisoning. The conclusion was that someone hired him for the job and eliminated him to prevent him from talking. The Lai Clan had many enemies, and they concluded this was an attack on them.
During the entire week, Big Mouth was on edge, fearing someone would barge into their inn and arrest the two of them. But after the Lai Clan lifted the lockdown, he left in relief. Nevertheless, part of him still believed the youngster Yan Wei had something to do with that murder.
Soon after returning to their city, Yan Wei began to learn martial arts. And soon, the latter displayed his incredible talent. He could learn most techniques after seeing them once. Yan Wei even acquired a breathing technique that absorbed Spiritual Qi between Heaven and Earth to strengthen the body. Adding his natural divine strength, he was a born-martial art genius.
All these improvements should have been positive, but Big Mouth could not stop remembering what occurred in Red Tree City and feared something would happen. Part of him hoped Yan Wei would quit his job and use his newfound strength to make a living.
Regrettably, three years passed, and Yan Wei was the same: his face was cold and emotionless, always doing his job without any expression, remorse, or guilt–no matter who the prisoner was. At first, Big Mouth thought he maybe was being too sensitive, and things would return to a certain level of normalcy. However, he soon began to notice the disappearance of people in Droplet City, where they lived.
First, It was nothing but criminals the law did not catch. Then, it was corrupt government officials, nobles, martial artists, and wealthy merchants, then…
Bang!
Hundreds of armed soldiers barged into the prison, surrounding Yan Wei.
“What is the meaning of this?” Yan Wei asked before he saw someone in the middle of the soldiers: Big Mouth.
“I can’t allow you to continue your rampage,” said Big Mouth with a slight pain in his voice; he always blamed him for allowing this youngster with a bright future to fall down this rabbit hole. “Don’t try to deny it; the government has gathered enough evidence that leads to you.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“I am an Emissary of Fate, delivering their final judgment to these scums,” Yan Wei replied coldly.
“Scums? I can understand your actions for the criminals. But what about the innocent people you killed?”
“That’s only because of their poor luck. I put the name of every person in this city in a bowl and chose one at random. The selected person will receive a final judgment from fate, from me.”
“Who are you to decide people’s fate?” roared Big Mouth.
“Who is a nobleman to decide the fate of a poor countryman?” rebutted Yan Wei. “He does it because he has the strength to.”
Big Mouth looked at this youngster with red eyes; he knew the person he knew was long gone. And nothing he did would change that fact.
“Get him.”
The soldiers rushed with their weapons to arrest or permanently eliminate Yan Wei. Unfortunately, his martial art was truly superb. He used the room or environment to his benefit and ran away with severe injuries. A few months later, the Fate Killer stroke again by stealing names from the magistrate, selecting them randomly, and massacring everyone chosen.
And from now, this became his M.O. (modus operandi). Whenever he traveled, he would repeat the same things. Unfortunately, his actions offended countless martial art sects and the government, leading to an alliance to eradicate him.
Yan Wei fought a legendary battle for three days against the coalition of martial artists and the government. Unfortunately, his ultimate end was being stabbed by dozens, if not more, weapons.
Wang Wei dug himself out from his grave.
“Being corrupt by the power of Fate? I’ve never thought about that,’ he muttered. His goal has always been to control fate, but he never thought about the possible side effects of his actions. Well, he thought about them, but he always believed his cultivation and state of mind should be on par with the task by the time he could achieve such a feat. However, he realized this might not always be true.
“Maybe nothing is incorruptible–including Grand Dao,” he muttered as his eyes lit up. This experience taught him that he should always be on the lookout and be vigilant to prevent corruption of his mind when he can control the power of Fate of the entire Chaos Universe and beyond.
He disappeared before reappearing in Droplet City. He stood before a grave. Wang Wei cleaned it up and placed some flowers.
‘An eight-year-old child: how young and innocent.’ he thought while also pondering whether to revive her. With his mastery of life and death, it’s as easy as eating for him to revive a mortal child.
However, he shook his head. He knew fate was cruel: every day, millions of innocent women and children die because fate has determined their lives and outcome. And one day, he has to get used to that cruelty before he can bend everything to his whim.
Wang Wei stayed before the grave for a while before disappearing. He learned his lesson and will approach his goal of being free and unfettered by controlling fate with more prudence. He did not want to slowly lose his mind like Yan Wei, corrupted by the power he wielded.
After leaving, he proceeded to his next persona: the king of an interesting kingdom. Wang Wei hoped he could also learn something valuable from this experience; he hoped to learn something from all his persona for this Mortal Dust.